Acting Up in Hopeless Times

April 14, 2026 in Scheuer Room, Kohlberg Hall

Acting Up in Hopeless Times convenes an intergenerational group of public intellectuals, community historians, activists, and scholars to consider the ongoing queer legacies of the 1980’s AIDS pandemic and ACT UP activism. This symposium puts the politically-dire situation of 2026 for LGBTQ+ individuals in continuity with the political histories begun and continued in the 1980’s AIDS epidemic. By framing LGBTQ+ activism, culture, and community as the direct result of political crisis, rather than its pre-emption or remedy, this symposium aims to catalyze a renewal of 1) queer theory and historiography within scholarly and public discourses and 2) forms of queer civic and political life that have faltered since the discontinuities of knowledge transfer created by COVID-19. This event is free, accessible and open to the public.

Marlon M Bailey Paper Title: "Black Gay Pleasure Placemaking as Collective Care in the Age of AIDS"

Jamal Batts Paper Title:  "A Terror of Solidarity: Chocolate Babies and the Idea of Black Queer Cinema"

Salonee Bhanam Paper Title: "Credible Pain and Specific Infection: The Fight to Expand the Definition of HIV"

Debra Levine Paper Title: “The World of Possibilities Stands Behind Us: How Liberationist Histories Inspired ACT UP”

Dahlia Li Paper Title: “Notes from an Immaterial Girlhood: Trans Representability and the Crisis of Citation” 

Olivia R. Polk Paper Title: “Angela Davis's Blues Lesbianism: Notes Toward Self-Determination in the Midst of the Crisis”

The Sager Fund, created in 1988 by Richard Sager ’74, hosts prominent guests representing the LGBTQIA community.

Presented with the support of William J. Cooper Foundation, Clark Fund for Gender Discourse, Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility, and the Swarthmore Office of Inclusive Excellence 

Cosponsored by the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies,  the Swarthmore Intercultural Center,  and the Departments of English Literature, Black Studies, Theater,  Peace and Conflict Studies, Sociology and Anthropology, and History

Sabbath Queen Screening and Q&A with filmmaker Sandi DuBowski

February 25, 2026 at 7:00 p.m. 

Filmed over 21 years, this highly acclaimed feature-length documentary follows Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie's epic journey as the dynastic heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis, including Chief Rabbis of Israel. He is torn between rejecting and embracing his destiny and becomes a drag-queen rebel, a queer bio-dad and the founder of Lab/Shul—an everybody-friendly, God-optional, artist-driven, pop-up experimental congregation. Sabbath Queen is witness to Lau-Lavie’s unfailing courage and grace, as he grapples with key questions of who we are and who we will be. Stimulating and moving, DuBowski’s film ends with Lau-Lavie’s words on Israel and Palestine post-October 7th as he evokes the challenge of our lifetime: “How do we reimagine our sacred traditions to achieve peace?”

Directed and produced by Sandi DuBowski, director of Trembling Before G-d, and producer of A Jihad for Love. His award-winning work has screened at Sundance, Berlin, Tribeca and Toronto, been theatrically released in 150 cities, and broadcast on ZDF/Arte, BBC, Channel 4, PBS. Former Outreach Director of Doc Society’s Good Pitch, he is an expert in documentary impact campaigns. 

Cosponsored by Film and Media Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, the Gender and Sexuality Center, the Department of Religion, and the Interfaith Center.

Heightened Scrutiny

October 29, 2025 at 7:00 p.m.

Heightened Scrutiny follows Chase Strangio, ACLU attorney and the first out trans person to argue before the Supreme Court, as he fights a high-stakes legal battle to overturn Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth (United States v. Skrmetti).

The film exposes the dangerous role of mainstream media in fueling anti-trans legislation, uncovering how biased coverage drives hate, endangers lives, and threatens democracy itself. With insights from journalists like Jelani Cobb, Lydia Polgreen, and Gina Chua, and activists like Laverne Cox, the story dismantles anti-trans disinformation and highlights its devastating real-world impact.

Sam Feder is a Peabody Award-nominated film director and writer. Sam’s films explore the intersection of trans visibility and politics along the lines of race, class, and gender. Sam directed the award-winning Netflix Original documentary Disclosure (2020) and the widely acclaimed documentary Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Present Danger.

Presented by the Program in Gender & Sexuality Studies and the Gender and Sexuality Center with support from the Clark Fund for Gender Discourse. Co-sponsored by Film & Media Studies.

Making and Unmaking Categories: Queer/Trans/Disabled Resistance and Joy

Eli Clare is a white, disabled, and genderqueer writer and activist living in Vermont. He is the author of Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation, The Marrow's Telling: Words in Motion, Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure, and the forthcoming Unfurl. 

Sponsored by the Sager Fund, Swarthmore Disability Association, and the Gender and Sexuality Studies program. The talk is free, accessible, and open to the public and will be followed by a reception.

Masks are required and will be provided.

Making Worlds: A Conversation about Internationalist Gender Liberation

Join us for a conversation with Professor Jaskiran Dhillon and a student activist from Upenn about internationalist gender liberation and what it means to collectively make worlds.

How to Advocate for Yourself and Others in Health Care Settings

Black nonbinary nurse Heather Hightower ’09 (they/them) offers advice on how to advocate for yourself while navigating health care systems as a patient, and how to advocate for marginalized patients (BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and more) as a health care worker.

Poetry is not a Luxury

Consortium for Faculty Diversity Postdoctoral Fellow Dahlia Li will host artist Jaamil Olawale Kosoko for three body and performance-based workshops drawing from their collaborative practice centering Black feminist poetics. Offered in conjunction with GSST 1: “Feminist, Queer, and Transgender Life Across Generations,” workshops explore productive frictions between personal feelings of sexuality, space, and gender as they meet social expectation, restriction, and possibility. Open to the public; no prior poetry or performance experience required.

Bye Bye Tiberias

In her early twenties, Hiam Abbass left her native Palestinian village to follow her dream of becoming an actress in Europe, leaving behind her mother, grandmother, and seven sisters. Thirty years later, the world-renowned actress (Succession, Ramy, The Lemon Tree) returns to the village with her filmmaker daughter to explore her chosen exile and the way the women in their family influenced both their lives.

Set between past and present, Bye Bye Tiberias pieces together images of today, family footage, and historical archives to portray four generations of daring Palestinian women who keep their story and legacy alive through the strength of their bonds, despite exile, dispossession, and heartbreak.

Featured in numerous international festivals and nominated for Independent Spirit and Cesar Awards, Bye Bye Tiberias was Palestine’s 2024 Oscar submission.

Queer Shakespeare Workshop

This workshop will revisit and queer Shakespeare's work through performative means. Using strategies from Mexican Cabaret, we will develop playful modes through which performance helps audiences navigate the more serious LGBTO+ social topics of today. Our goal will be to find moments in Shakespeare's work that allows us to create queer narratives and characters that offer better representations of queer experience while questioning and challenging the political state of equal rights for queers in the contemporary world. Free and open to the Swarthmore Community; no prior performance or theatre experience necessary.

Presented by the Program ni Gender and Sexuality Studies with Sponsorship from the Clark Fund for Gender Discourse

Artist Bio: Mariano Ruiz (they/she) is a trans nonbinary cabaret artivist from Mexico City. They use humor, pop culture and satire to talk about Othered bodies and their experiences. With over 20 shows created Mariano has molded a career creating projects that question the social segregation created by the rejection of the identities or sexualities that leave the so-called "norm".

Christian Cooper Walks and Talks

Christian Cooper is the NY Times-bestselling author of Better Living Through Birding and an Emmy winner for his work on National Geographic’s Extraordinary Birder with Christian Cooper. Cooper serves as a vice president of NYC Bird Alliance, where he advocates for greater, safer access to green spaces for all, with a focus on outreach to youth in underserved communities. A longtime activist on issues of racial justice and LGBTQ equality, Cooper combined his passions in the BLM short story “It’s a Bird” from DC Comics. He continues to seek synergy at the intersections of storytelling, progressivism, and environmentalism.

Co-sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Peace & Conflict Studies, the Intercultural Center, McCabe Library, the Office of Sustainability and, the Black Cultural Center.